An Ke immediately noticed Xiao Jian and, without hesitation, grabbed a guard's knife and rushed forward.
But just then, the wedding procession surrounded Anke. It turned out that their feigned riot was merely a ploy to lure the emperor to a halt and distract others.
Since Anke couldn't get through, he naturally couldn't support the Emperor. At this moment, the Emperor still had the mind to nod to Anke, and turned his gaze to Fu Lun, who was blocking his way.
That's right, this is also part of Anke's plan. This will reveal whether Fu Lun was involved or not, or whether all of this was just a plan between Fu Erkang and Xiao Jian.
"Guards! Protect the Emperor!" Fu Lun immediately spread his arms to protect the Emperor, while the Empress was startled and immediately backed away.
Although Fu Lun had no weapons, he fought Xiao Jian to a standstill with his bare hands.
The fact that the Emperor is standing still is part of Xiao Jian's plan. He had already ordered the person who infiltrated the Hall of Mental Cultivation to secretly drug the Emperor, so he should be completely powerless now.
Fu Erkang was conflicted at this moment. Yes, he resented the emperor, after all, his demotion was all because of the emperor.
He had long known that Xiao Jian was a member of the White Lotus Sect, and his only goal was to use them to save the Emperor in front of everyone and then gain a great merit. But now the Imperial Guards weren't around the Emperor, and no one on their side was armed. Wasn't this the perfect opportunity?
Fu Erkang was somewhat restless, especially when he saw the Emperor standing still and looking weak. Fu Erkang felt that God was protecting him.
After all, if the emperor were alive, he would always depend on the emperor's favor and live at the emperor's beck and call, forever remaining subservient. But if the emperor were gone, then he…
They now have the advantage of favorable timing, location, and popular support. If they don't rebel under these circumstances, they would be letting down the great opportunity that God has given them.
Fu Erkang waved his hand, and the wedding procession behind him rushed forward, engaging in a fight with the eunuchs around the emperor.
Seeing Fu Erkang's ungrateful behavior, Fu Ertai was also enraged. He immediately jumped forward and started fighting with Fu Erkang.
"Do you know what you're doing? You're committing regicide." As he spoke, Ertai punched Fu Erkang in the face.
Fu Erkang didn't react at first, but after he did, he spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, then laughed loudly, "So what? When he demoted me, he was no longer a qualified monarch. I am full of talent, but he seems not to see it and it is never of any use to him. Instead, he demoted me to a cook in the imperial kitchen."
Fu Ertai shook his head, feeling that Fu Erkang was simply hopeless. "Isn't it you who neglected your duties? You neglected your duties when you were a royal bodyguard and were demoted to a bodyguard in the Qianqing Palace, but you still haven't corrected this bad habit."
"So what? He can remember to arrange a marriage for you but not for Ziwei. Does he deserve to be a qualified father?" At this point, Fu Erkang's voice rose again. He felt that he was in the right in this matter.
"As long as I am here today, you will not be able to kill the emperor and seize the throne." Fu'ertai didn't say anything now. In short, in his childhood impression, his father had always instilled in him the idea of protecting the Qing Dynasty and being loyal to the monarch.
The two of them started fighting bare-handed, and before long, Fu Erkang's face was bruised and his eyes were swollen.
Fu Erkang's face showed shock. He hadn't expected his younger brother, whom he had always looked down upon, to be so skilled. He became more alert and used all his strength to knock his troublesome brother to the ground.
He even pulled out a hidden weapon from his waist. Yes, he originally planned to use the hidden weapon to save the emperor when the White Lotus Sect took the opportunity to cause trouble, but he didn't expect it to play such a role at this time.
An Ke was also playing along to some extent, after all, these were just a few small fry, and she didn't take them seriously. When she saw Fu Erkang take out a hidden weapon from his waist, An Ke shouted, "Ertai, be careful, he has a hidden weapon."
Upon hearing Anke's warning, Forte dodged the dagger that was about to pierce his waist.
All pretense of friendship vanished in an instant. Fu Ertai began to punch him squarely, his expression growing increasingly fierce, as if the person beneath him was not his own brother, but his enemy.
The Fujin was terrified watching from the side, but when she saw Ertai beating Erkang so violently, she couldn't help but jump out to stop him, saying, "Ertai is your own brother, let go of him!"
But Ertai, enraged, couldn't listen to anything. Seeing this, the Fujin disregarded everything and rushed forward to stop Ertai, who was still beating Erkang.
Even if they severed ties, Ertai wouldn't hit a woman for no reason. Especially since this woman had given birth to him.
When the Fujin saw Ertai stop, she immediately pushed him away and turned to check on Fu Erkang. Seeing the blood trickling from the corner of Fu Erkang's mouth, the Fujin's heart ached. "Erkang, Erkang, are you alright? Don't scare your mother."
Fu Erkang breathed a sigh of relief, wiping his nose and mouth, panting heavily, and looked at Ertai with a defiant gaze, as if to say, "So what if you beat me in martial arts? Mother is still biased towards me."
Fortunately, Ertai had long since given up on that family, otherwise his already wounded heart would have been trampled and ravaged again.
Before Fu Erkang could say anything, his wife spoke up for her eldest son, standing in front of Fu Ertai and accusing him vehemently, "Everyone says he's your brother, how could you beat him so badly? We're all family, don't you have a heart?"
As An Ke listened to the Fujin's accusations, she felt sorry for Ertai. If it were an ordinary person, they might not have been able to bear it.
Fu Ertai stood there indifferently, refusing to yield an inch, while his wife went from tearfully accusing him to repeatedly hitting him.
Anke quickly dealt with the henchmen surrounding her, then leaped to Ertai's side, pulled him behind her, and brought him into her protective range.
At first, the princess was mindlessly patting the princess, but as she continued, she felt something was off. Looking up, she saw An Ke standing coldly in front of her, and her hand was on the princess's left arm.
The sudden shock nearly made the Fujin fall to the ground, but luckily Fu Erkang was there to support her. Well, this adopted son is not entirely useless.
“Ertai has severed ties with you. What right do you have to bully government officials here?” An Ke said loudly.
The princess's lips trembled and moved a few times before she said in a shaky voice, "Princess, this is our family matter. No matter what, Ertai was born to me in October. Don't I have the right to discipline my son?" As she spoke, tears streamed down her cheeks.
"If I hadn't seen how you treated your two sons just now, I might have actually been fooled by your muddling through," An Ke couldn't help but applaud her, saying with a mocking expression.
At this point, the princess froze, tears welling up but not falling, looking somewhat comical. Oh yes, how could she forget that the princess had just been standing there?
The farce had gone on long enough, and the Emperor had seen enough of it, so he raised his voice and said, "Come out, all of you, and seize these traitors for me."
When Xiao Jian heard the Emperor's words, he knew he had been tricked. He was about to leave, but Fu Lun couldn't just watch him go, especially with so many imperial guards waiting nearby.
Xiao Jian was ultimately forced to submit to execution. Even after being subdued, he still glared defiantly at the emperor with an arrogant expression, saying, "It was a misjudgment of my not to kill you today. Otherwise, you should have become a dead soul under my sword today."
Now that he had been captured, the Emperor no longer bothered to put on an act with him. He strode up to him, looking down at him as if he were an ant. "Is that so? From the moment you stepped into the palace, you fell into the trap that An'an had set for you."
When the emperor said this, he could hardly hide his smugness, as if he had come up with the plan himself.
Anke: This childish person is actually my uncle.
Xiao Jian stiffly turned his head to look behind him, raised an eyebrow at An Ke, and said resentfully, "It's you again, you ruined my plan."
"Otherwise what? Do you think I, the princess, would help you turn my uncle against us?" An Ke stepped forward and kicked him hard.
Xiao Jian was kicked and fell to the ground, but even then, he continued to spout arrogant words, "Hahaha, you don't know, do you? We still have one person. If he doesn't see us return, he might set fire to the entire palace. If you now..."
An Ke couldn't stand his nonsense and said directly, "Isn't he just Meng Dan who infiltrated Baoyue Tower?" An Ke glanced at him and said lightly, "He's probably already been captured and is waiting to reunite with you in prison."
Xiao Jian then revealed a look of horror on his face, his expression filled with disbelief. He never imagined that this princess could be so meticulous in her calculations, even including Meng Dan.
He was unwilling, he was angry, but he was helpless.
"Bring the people to the main hall for questioning, and imprison the rest of the traitors to await their fate." The Emperor, no longer wanting to see any more of this intrigue, gave the order directly.
Just as he was about to enter the Hall of Supreme Harmony, he saw Fu Erkang cowering to the side and remembered that Fu Erkang had seemed to have added fuel to the fire when he was in trouble. "Bring Fu Erkang in with me."
Upon hearing this, the princess immediately stepped forward to stop the guards who were about to take her son away, shouting and yelling like a shrew from the marketplace, completely lacking the noble bearing of a court official's wife. "What are you doing? Why are you taking my son away?"
But the guards wouldn't listen to a mere woman's words. The emperor's order was law. They pulled the princess aside and escorted Fu Erkang into the main hall.
Fu Erkang looked pale and ashen. He knew that whatever he did now would be wrong; plotting against the Emperor was already a death sentence. All he wanted now was for the Emperor to execute him.
The princess was still unwilling to give up. She rushed to Fu Ertai's side, completely forgetting how she had just glared at him. She looked at him with a pleading expression, "Ertai and Erkang are your brothers. You won't just stand by and watch them die, will you?"
Seeing Ertai's indifferent expression, Fujin could only suppress her grief. She knew that no one could be relied on now except for her, her second son. Even her husband probably wouldn't go to great lengths for Erkang.
"Ertai, I'm begging you, please, for the sake of the past relationship between you brothers, and for the sake of your mother raising you for so many years, please help Erkang." As she spoke, the Fujin's tears came unbidden.
But these tears were like sharp swords piercing Ertai; he couldn't even dodge them, so how could he possibly accept them completely?
“This is the Emperor’s decree. Besides, he is an adult and knows what he should and shouldn’t do. I have already tried to dissuade him, but Mother still sided with him. Why should he come to me for help now?” Ertai hardened his heart and threw his wife’s hand aside. Then he took Anke’s hand and walked into the main hall without looking back.
The princess was left alone, slumped on the ground, tears streaming down her face. "You have no regard for brotherly love. You will be struck by lightning."
Ertai didn't care, but Anke did. Anke turned around and walked back. The Fujin, watching Anke approach, felt as if a powerful pressure was pressing down on her.
"What...what are you going to do?" The Fujin's eyes were filled with terror; she was afraid Anke was going to do something to her, and she couldn't help but back away. "Ertai, are you just going to watch her humiliate your mother like this?"
An Ke sneered and grabbed her chin. "When you were running around for your eldest son, did you ever think about your youngest son? When you came to your youngest son for help with your eldest son's future, did you ever think about his suffering? How could there be a mother like you in the world?"
“Even if you can’t treat everyone equally, you shouldn’t be able to summon him and dismiss him at will. You may not care about Ertai, but I do. He’s already severed all ties with your Fu family; he’s signed the disownment papers. So what kind of mother are you?” After saying that, An Ke released the Fujin’s chin, but then felt it wasn’t enough. She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her hands hard, as if touching her was something dirty.
This scene directly shocked the Fujin, causing her to faint.
An Ke looked at the unconscious Fujin, raised her hand and beckoned two palace maids, instructing them, "Carry her to the side hall, find an imperial physician to treat her, and if she wakes up, send her out of the palace."
Anke walked to Ertai's side and reached out to pull him. Ertai's tears fell directly onto Anke's hand with a thud.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com